[quote=Lady of Traken;84033197]The Wheel in Space doesn’t seem to get talked about a lot by fans and I must admit to not knowing that much about this story myself before now,.
It is another base under siege story but it’s nice to get back into space after a run of stories set on Earth. I think overall it’s a decent entry mainly due to a strong supporting cast. Its good to see Clare Jenkins again (playing a very attractive engineer Tanya with her ‘nose for trouble’ . The accent is very stock Russian but the flirting between her and Leo is rather fun and adds some interest. She seems a bit out of his league and he seems a bit up himself telling Zoe she is like a machine, all facts and no emotion.
Poor Jarvis Bennett seems to have a complete breakdown
( What is it about the characters in charge in this era that they don’t seem to want to listen to reason ). Seeing Donald Sumpter ( Rassilon in Hell Bent) so young and playing a Spaniard ( I think) is amusing. For some reason I get him confused with the actor Terence Yardley.I l did love Anne Ridler as Dr Gemma Corwyn. She was asking all the right questions so to see her killed by the Cybermen felt undeserved.
David Whittaker (one of my favourite writers for the era) he’s had a good record at writing for the Daleks and making them interesting so does it work for the Cybermen ? Well I like the idea of the round egg like pods containing the Cybermats who eat all the bernalium stores and how they are launched against the Wheel ( soundtrack is great as they enter the ship). Regarding Rudkin’s death the Cybermats seem to move really slowly but I notice they disable him really quickly with their sonic ray. I also really enjoy seeing how the Cybermen control the humans with hypnosis ray or whatever it is. I don’t remember it seeing later when I originally watched the Davison era so it was done away with I guess but the ray does feels a bit more threatening than the guns they developed for the Cybermen later.
I enjoyed Wendy Padbury’s debut playing Zoe although she wasn’t central to the action for a lot of the story. There is something cute about her general naiveté When the crew think Zoe and Jamie are lost in space due to the meteor storm I thought it was fascinating how the Doctor was so accepting that they had to take the risk. There are hard choices to be made and sometimes things that happen and I like that kind of maturity. No trying to reverse events.
I know what you mean about the pace. The first couple of episodes are basically mostly Jamie and the Doctor and I liked how Jamie missed Victoria and craved a roast dinner. With the Servo- Robot releasing the Cybermat pods I can only imagine how the Cybermen killed the crew of the rocket all those weeks ago and set the rocket on a course towards the wheel. With the Doctor missing from Episode 2 I liked the emphasis on Jamie attracting the attention of the Wheei and then sabotaging the laser. It also felt realistic that the Doctor was later restrained to the sick bay and I like his professional relationship with Dr Gemma.
Wouldn't necessarily say it was the weakest but this story is much simpler to watch then some other stories and the plot moves along slow enough over the 6 episodes to enjoy seeing things unfold.
Originally Posted by
CoalHillJanitor:
“It is a good one. I love the dancing Cybermen making their way towards the Wheel. 
And Clare Jenkins returns as Tanya after playing quite a different sort of character (Nanina in The Savages).
Loose Cannon did a nice recon of this one last year with some impressive CGI bits.[/QUOTE]
Agree about Loose Cannon, CoalHill its how I watched the story and thought the CGI added a lot to the story
Talking of Cyber men when they are expelled from the airlock in Episode 6 they look like cardboard cut-outs ! They must have run out of money ”
Just a comment on your first point, I think these really bolshy unreasonable men who were in charge of places in this era were probably designed to be totally opposite to The Doctor and therefore provide that contrast. If they all listened to reason, you'd never have a story!
As for your point about pace, I think(and this is purely my opinion rather than fact) that when The Doctor is missing from some sixties episodes the story as a whole doesn't progress that much. The episode itself will to a degree but sometimes as in this story, it seems as if the story is held back waiting for The Doctor to return the next episode and it' feels worse when he goes missing second episode.
One of my few gripes about my fave Hartnell Story, The Time Meddler, is that maybe the story doesn't get going until the third episode when Hartnell returns and the second episode feels like filler.
The Wheel In Space isn't quite that bad but I think it does suffer a bit from Troughton's absence in Episode 2 as I've said but there's enough in that episode to make it feel less like padding.
